Welcome to the Copper online user guide for the Standard edition. Here you can review the documentation, screenshots, or quicktime movie where you see the icon.
 

Overview

Getting started with Copper is easy. After your installation is completed, you log in and create accounts for your staff and external users. You add your client records, and then create or import your projects and tasks.

From there your team members log in and can quickly review and contribute to project information. Copper is your organization's central hub of information.


Setting up your Copper
To log in to Copper, open your web browser and enter the address of your Copper installation. Enter your Username and Password (provided to you by your administrator) and hit go.

Once logged in, to review your profile information, click on your name in the top right corner of the screen. Here you can edit your information, set your default module, and choose email update options. Ensure you change the default Admin password when you first log in.

Next you need to create your users. To create a user, first click on the Administration link in the main menu. This screen shows a list of current users. To create a new user, click on Create New User in the action bar. In the User Screen, enter the relevant details and hit Save User. Repeat this process for each user required.

Next you need to create a client record, as all Copper projects are assigned to a Client. Click Clients in the main menu. This screen shows the list of clients, as well as their active/inactive projects. Click New Client at top right of screen. In the Create Client screen, enter the client details and hit Save. Create a new client record for each of your clients.

That forms the basis of your set up! Next you can create new projects, tasks within these projects, and allocate them to your resources.

Springboard

The Springboard is your personal to-do, showing you the tasks you've been allocated to where you are the owner. The springboard allows your team to add task updates to build a running commentary of task activity and in turn forms the basis of Project reporting, invoicing, and resource timesheets. In addition, the task issues and most recent updates are displayed on this screen.

You can choose to view your tasks for a selected period (e.g. next week) or show tasks that are owed to you by others. Administrators can also switch to another user's view via the pulldowns.

To add a task comment, first check the task or tasks that you wish to update. Then enter a comment, specify hours spent, the estimated completion (%), the date of comment (Enterprise), and hit the save update button. Copper will add your comment along with the date and your user name. When a task is at 100% it no longer appears in your springboard.

Additional options are also available when submitting a comment, such as flagging a comment as an issue (which will display the task for attention in the relevant team member's Springboards), flagging a comment as out of scope (or not billable in Enterprise) which flags those worked hours for attention when creating invoices, or associating that comment with a related contact (allowing you to track related project/sales activity in the the contact's record).

Providing you have relevant access privileges, you can also drill down to tasks, projects, or clients, directly from this screen.

Client Management

The clients view allows you to review your client’s entire project portfolio, and more effectively manage relationships with internal client contacts. You can click on any client to review their contact details, project portfolio, related files, invoices, and dynamic timeline (Enterprise).

How to Create, Edit, and Delete Clients
Click on Clients in the main menu to view your existing Clients. To review a particular client’s details, click on the company name. This screen shows general information relating to this client, and you can click on any of the tabs to view related Projects, Files, and Contacts.

To create a new client, click on New Client at top right. Enter the client's details, and hit Save Update. You can then create a new Project or a new Contact for this client via the clients Project/Contact tab, or from within the Projects/Contacts module itself.

To delete a client, first choose the client from the main clients menu, then hit Delete in the action bar. This will delete the Client, as well as any associated Projects, Tasks, Contacts, and Files. Alternatively, you can archive a client by setting their archived status to checked. To view Archived clients hit View Archived next to the breadcrumbs.

Project Management

The Projects module allows you to review and drill-down to relevant project information, including tasks and timelines, allocate resources, budgets, task commentaries, related files, invoices, and contacts.

How to Create, Edit, and Delete Projects
Click on Projects in the main menu to view your active projects. You can sort your projects by any of the listed columns by clicking on the column arrows. To view archived projects click on View Archived in the breadcrumb trail.

To create a new project, click on New Project at the top right of screen. In the create project screen you specify high-level project details like project ID, client, colour identifier, description, budget, and timelines, and specify the project status and active/inactive checkbox. You can also now add the users you wish to have access to this project, and note that users with access to the related client will already be listed. Hit save when you are finished entering these details.

To view/edit an existing project, click on the project name from the main projects view. You can click on the print icon to print the project, the email icon to email all users associated with this project, or click on the sync icon to subscribe to the project in iCal. From here you can also drill down to four additional tabs: Tasks (which shows the projects tasks), Files (which shows all files associated with the current project), Contacts(which shows all associated contacts for this client) and Timeline. To edit the current Project including permissions for that project, click on Edit in the actions bar at top right of screen.

To delete the current Project, click on Delete in the action bar at top right of screen. Copper will delete all tasks, comments and files for that project.

How to Create Tasks and allocate Resources
Click on the Tasks tab within the current project. This screen shows the tasks associated with this project, including their name, order, completion percentage bar, expected duration, and due date. You can click on any of the columns to sort this view by that column.

Click New Task to create a new task, or click on an existing Task to view the task details including name, owner, estimated duration, allocated users, dates, budget, attached files and a full description. In the task view screen you can add a task update just as you would in the springboard, and in the Enterprise edition you assign resources via the dynamic resource widget. To edit task details, or allocate resources in the Standard or Corporate editions, click Edit.

Enterprise Resourcing
Within the task view, you can add your resources via the resource widget. First select a resource from the pulldown just under the widget, and their availability will be displayed for each day of the task duration as a gray box (unavailable), an open white area (available), or a combination (partly available). You can fill any white area to set the hours you wish the resource to work. Note that the task bar indicates estimated hours (black line) and your allocated hours (white line) to help with allocation.

To set a user's availability (Enterprise edition) use the Availability wizard in the Users view within the Admin module. You can also review or tweak the user's availability via the Calendar view.

How to Create, Edit, and Manage Contacts within Projects
Click on the Contacts tab within the current project. This screen shows you the contacts that are related to the client so that you can quickly contact them, or view updates relating to that contact. To create a new contact, click on New Contact in the action bar. See Adding a new contact in the Contacts section.

How to View, Edit, Delete, and Check in/out Files within Projects
Click on the Files tab within the current project. This screen shows the files currently uploaded to the Project. To open an existing file in its native application, click on the file name, To save the file right-click and choose 'save as'. To edit the file’s description choose Edit Details from the Action pulldown. To delete a file, select delete from the Action pulldown for that file.

To upload a new file, click New File at top-right of screen. Here you can create a file description, relate the file to a specific task, specify the file version, and finally Browse for a file to upload.

To check out a file (which prevents others from changing it), choose 'check out' from the pulldown menu. Only the user that checked out the file or Administrators may check a file back in (either by selecting check in to keep the original, or selecting a replacement file).

How to use the Timeline
Click on the Timeline tab to review a Project Gantt chart. The timeline provides a visual depiction of how the current project is tracking, and allows you to quickly manipulate timelines, reorder tasks, create dependencies, and add new tasks and milestones.

Use the pulldown to select a week, month, quarter, year range. Click the Print icon to print a single page timeline. To go to a task view screen, click on the task icon, or click on the task name to rename it.

In the Timeline, the thick horizontal light gray bar represents the start and end date of the task, while the coloured area within it represents the Estimated effort in hours. The thin horizontal dark gray bar represents the actual hours posted by users in task comments. The gray connecting lines between tasks show dependencies. When a change conflicts with a dependency that you’ve created, Copper will show that dependency line in red, prompting you to shift tasks to suit.

To move a task on a timeline, drag the whole task left or right. Copper will show the current task date information and the new task date information as you drag. To specify a new end date, grab the top right corner handle and drag left or right. To specify a new estimated duration (effort), drag the bottom right corner handle.

Enterprise Timeline
In the Enterprise edition, you can also move an entire project via drag and drop, and the task dates will shift accordingly. In addition, the thin horizontal white line represents the hours committed to the task, and committed hours are carried over to the next day if they are not worked.

Calendar

The Calendar view provides a Monthly and Weekly view of projects and task milestones. You can also create calendar events such as meetings and public holidays that are not project related but may impact on a project. Administrators can view another users calendar to review and manage resource allocations.

How to use the Calendar and Create General Events
To filter the view by project, click on the projects pull down menu and select the project you wish to view dates for. Remember you will only see those projects that you have access to.

To move to the next or previous month/week, click on prev or next at the bottom of screen. To open a task or project from the calendar view, click on the task or project heading. To create a general event, click on New Event and enter the relevant details before saving. This note will be viewed by all Copper users with Read access to the Calendar module.

File Management

Copper's powerful file management system treats files as project-assets, allowing you to quickly find related files, whilst ensuring that files are only viewable by those with appropriate access.

How to Manage Project and General Files
The Files module is similar to the Files tab in the Projects or Clients view, however it provides a single view of all files across all clients and projects that the current user has privileges for. There is also a general files tab for uploading files that aren't specific to projects.

Click on the Project Files tab to view related project files. As per the project files view, to open the file in a new window, click on the file name. To save the file to your hard drive, right-click on the file and choose ‘save as’. To edit the file’s meta data, click on edit file info.

To add a new general file, click on Upload New General File at top right of screen. Enter the relevant meta data, select the file by using the browse button, and click Save File.

To check in or check out a file, choose check in/check out from the pulldown menu. When a file is checked out no other user can download it until you’ve uploaded it (or administrator chooses to check in the file by hitting check in and save, thus keeping the old file).

To delete a file, select delete from the Actions pulldown for that file. Copper now deletes the file from the database and the file system, so for those who were using Copper as a front end to existing file servers be aware of this.

Contact Management

Within Copper contacts are related to Clients, which allows you to quickly find related contacts, and review related activity.

When a user creates a task comment, they can nominate a related client contact which in turn provides your team with a running commentary of work undertaken, sign-offs etc.

How to Create, Edit, and Manage Contacts
To filter the contacts list by surname, click on the relevant letter in the top left bread-crumb bar. You can also find a contact by typing their name into the search box at the top of screen.

To Add a new contact, click on New Contact at the top right of screen. Here you can add the relevant details, and click the Save button.

To view a contact and/or related activity, click on the contact’s name. This screen shows the contacts name and contact details, and also shows the related updates to that contact. You can click on the Client, Project, or Task to view the respective item.

To edit a contact, first go to the contact view and click on Edit in the Action bar at top-right of screen. To delete a contact, press the Delete button in the Action bar.

Reports

The Reports view provides a number of reports to help you assess overall portfolio health, and undertake general housekeeping tasks. A General overview shows a monthly snap shot of activity, project specific reports show project activity by month, and user specific reports show user activity. The timesheets function automatically generates timesheets for your staff for a selected period, based on their task update activity.

How to use the Reports module
To view a general monthly overview of progress, click on the General tab. This view shows a monthly snap shot of activity including most/least active projects and users, and a bottleneck alert of most overdue tasks for all projects.

To view project specific reports, either click on a project name in the overview, or click on the Project Analysis tab and select the desired project from the pull-down menu. The project analysis view shows a breakdown of activity for a project across all months that project has been active.

To view user specific reports, click on the User Analysis tab and select the desired user from the pull-down menu. The user analysis view shows a breakdown of activity for a user including the most recent update, the number of projects and tasks a user has access to, the hours spent by the user in the previous and current week/month, and a review of the most recent updates and most urgent tasks associated with that user.

To view timesheets click on the Timesheets Tab. This report allows you to extract the actual hours spent by a user or users for a specified period. First, select a preset period or set your range, then select a single user or control-click for multiple users, and press the Go button.

Administration and Settings

Copper's Administration view allows you to manage user and group permissions, and allows you to set system options such as currency, time zone, language, project counters, and email notification settings.

Setting up Users and Groups, and Managing Permissions
The copper permissions system is designed to be flexible when setting up permissions, and in this regard there are a few rules to remember when administering permissions.

Giving a user or group write access to the Administration module will grant them access to everything . By default, when you create a new User/Group, Copper will automatically deny the Admin/Reports/Budget Modules for you. Secondly, a Group's permissions will override and Individuals permissions. Therefore if a Group has access to the Administration module everyone within that group will have access to everything

That said, there are three components to the Copper permissions system: Modules, Clients, and Projects. To set these permissions, log in as Administrator, click on Administration in the menu, and edit a user/group as required.

Modules: This refers to which modules or menu items a user can see, and what they can do within these modules.
A Deny setting means they will not see that module within copper (even when linked from another module, this will produce an error).
A Read setting means they can see the module, however cannot create new objects within it.
A Write setting means they can see the module, and create new objects within it.
Even though a user has access to a module, they ALSO need access to a Client/Project object or they will not see any items within that module.

Clients: This refers to the permissions a user has to specific clients.
A read setting for a client means that the user can see all of the client’s information and the projects associated with that client.
A write setting means the same as above, however the user can also edit the information within that client (and its associated projects).

Projects: This refers to the permissions a user has to specific projects.
A read setting for a project means that the user can read the project/task information within that project.
A write setting for a project means the same as above, however the user can also edit project information (including allocating user to tasks, setting budget etc.)

Task-only permission: Even if a user has no access to client/project objects, you can still have them work on individual tasks within a project. If you wish to set up a user with very basic access (e.g. a subcontractor or limited-clearance employee) simply grant them read access only to the Springboard module and within the task edit view allocate them to that task. They will not be able to see project info like budget/files, yet they can add task comments (i.e. conduct work) on a single task to completion.

Typical Permissions Set-up for Users
Copper is designed to service various users within an organization, from senior management, to project managers and project participants and other support staff. While Copper is a highly flexible system allowing you to grant modular access to users, the following is a listing of user types that typify standard usage, as well as the Copper features that are most frequently used by each user type.

1. Senior Management
Senior Management are likely to be the broadest users of Copper, and as such are often granted Administration access to enable them to move freely about the system. They will likely use the Reports module for high level views of program and project health, and yet may use the Projects module for review of project timing or even task progress.

2. Middle management or Project Managers
Project managers are also the heaviest users of Copper. They will likely spend most of their time in the Project and Calendar modules, drilling down to tasks that threaten project efficiency. In a high-trust organization these users will also be granted Administration access, however where information is sensitive they may be explicitly restricted to certain projects.

3. Project participants and support staff
Project participants (also known as process workers, subcontractors, suppliers) will rarely be granted Administration access. Where such users need access to project specific information (as opposed to task specific information) they may be granted explicit read/write access to certain projects. However, quite often these users are shown the default modules, and use their Springboard view to track and update task progress. The Springboard view shows a listing of tasks that have been allocated to that user. The user can view task details and submit task comments, percentage completion, and hours spent data.

4. Client Users
Not to be confused with the Clients module (Which holds client specific information), to set up a client who is also a user it is necessary to create a user. In this scenario, grant the user access to this client’s projects explicitly via the administration system.

To manage System Settings
Click on the Setting Tab. This screen allows you to set the Records per page copper returns, the currency symbol, set a project ID counter, allow users to edit their task comments, as well as a number of email notification options including sending emails when a task is updated, X days before due, and X days after due. When you have completed your changes, click on Save.